


One last Dance

by tLink_201



Category: Original Work
Genre: Dancing, Gen, Original Character(s), Sword Dancing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-30
Updated: 2020-09-29
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:40:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26716153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tLink_201/pseuds/tLink_201
Summary: Kai Adest, a performer, was quite hot shot for a good while, seeing rapid success among the otherwise very dense crowd in the entertainment industry.All of that ended when he some day, three years ago, vanished off of the face of the earth without a trace, not even his mentor nor own student knowing where he went.And just recently, he returned to his home town, a large city kept alive through its major entertainment branches, for one last show.





	One last Dance

**Author's Note:**

> Just some quick announcements!
> 
> Hello everyone! Just really quick before we get into this, I thought I'd point out that I'll be changing the way I update things for now.  
> The current idea is that I'll cycle between Wrath of Kilat, this, aka. One last Dance and a new project coming... at a point in time, for updates at the beginning of the month (12AM CET on the 1st of a month, roughly).  
> Sorry if you're, for some reason, a big fan of Wrath of Kilat and want me to only update that, but I don't really think I could get myself to do that without losing my passion for it.  
> I hope you understand!
> 
> Lastly, I just wanted to also announce I'll be taking a short break from posting here, probably, until I catch up on my chapters a bit so I won't feel as tightly pressured on time as I kinda have been until now.
> 
> Thank you, you may now proceed as regularly schedueled! I hope you'll enjoy!  
> ~Link

Hey, are you alright? That was quite a fall. A slip-up, huh? You should pay some more attention, even if it’s only practice. Those things can cause some serious damage, you know?... What? Who am I? The name’s Kai. Haven’t seen anyone in this town that doesn’t recognize me. Most people at least get who I am from the rumors, you know? Well, I suppose I should fill you in on them, then. It’s been four months since I came back to this scene. And that was really only because someone signed me up for a show after finding me again… Three years since I last met her… And then she suddenly came up to me, first time we talked in all that time, and all she gave me was a time, date, and place to be. I was curious, so I came. And, well… things happened, some other stuff happened, and I got involved in that competition. I remember most of that week vividly… I don’t look back on it fondly, in all honesty… It pains me more than anything… But I should go in some more detail, shouldn’t I? Well, let’s start with the first day of that competition. The first round.  
God was I nervous that entire night…  
“It’s only tonight… It’s only tonight… That’s it… One night… Then it’s over… This shouldn’t be hard… No, not at all! I’ve got one time in me, right? I know I quit and said I’d never do it again… But… I can’t just—"  
I never did get to finish that line of thought… Young ones aren’t that patient, but you should know. You’re not that old yourself.  
“Kai? Hey, Kai! Are you listening to me? Jeez, don’t zone out like that!”  
“H—huh? What? No… No, I got you… Umm… No, I didn’t… Sorry, what were you saying?”  
“Good lord, it’s just this once! Listen, I’m sorry I signed you up for this without asking you, but please! I need you to help me with this! You don’t need to give it your all, but at least try a bit , alright? Pleeease?”  
“Well… What do you want me to say? It’s not like I can back out now… It’s maybe another half an hour until it starts. Well, that, and I agreed I’d help…”  
“I know you did! But… But I can’t help but feel like you don’t want to do this… I feel like I’m forcing you to do this, you know?”  
“Well, you are… But that aside, it’s not that I don’t want to, it’s just that, well… I don’t think I can…”  
“What are you talking about?! You were the most talented there was when you still did this! You just up and quit without giving a reason! You didn’t even tell Hato why! This is like your grand return! Come on, just calm down. You can… No, you will do this! Let’s just go over everything until it’s our turn, okay?”  
Never in a million years was I expecting to be lectured by my former student. But here we are now. I’ve been proven wrong and that’s that.  
“Yeah… yeah, sure. Let’s just… do that.”  
“What am I even doing here?! I know I can’t do this anymore! Grand return… Yeah, right. As if anyone even remembers my face… It’s been two years already, hasn’t it…? Those that still do would probably laugh at me, right? After that last performance, do I even deserve to just… go back? After I just disappeared? Can I?”  
“Heeeey! Stop zoning out! You should focus! We don’t have that much time; we should at least properly prepare!”  
Yeah, I had a tendency to lose myself in thought.  
“*Sigh…* Yeah, I guess so… For the audience and all, right? Okay, no more zoning out. I’m focused. Tell me one more time, will you?”  
“That’s the spirit! Okay, so we’ll do…”  
We continued with some more pep talk and went over our performance. You know, the usual. Only after did she mention something weirdly out of character. Mina wasn’t the type to doubt herself. Or me, for that matter. It just wasn’t in her competitive nature.  
“Hey Kai? I was wondering…”  
“What is it, Mina?”  
“Well, it’s just… are you sure we’ll be fine? I mean, this whole competition features some of the most talented people from all around the globe, right? I feel so out of place…”  
“Wasn’t it you that said you’ll be fine with losing in the first round as long as I’m on stage with you? What are you suddenly getting worried for? You seemed so confident earlier. Come on, don’t be so down.”  
“Your attitude is contagious, Kai! I can’t do anything about it! You were down earlier, so I started questioning it, too… I don’t want to lose immediately… But that’s just selfish, isn’t it? It is, right? I promised it’d only be tonight… Why are you so… just… so you?! Why did you quit?! Kai! I want to know!”  
I won’t say she was wrong. My attitude was certainly something else. And honestly, I didn’t want to lose in the first round either. Nobody wants to. But I couldn’t just say that, could I? Well, let’s keep going.  
“You’re not the only one that does… But you most certainly are the most persistent. Most people gave up trying to figure out why I quit two years ago. You should, too. My time in the spotlight long passed. I only agreed to teach you what I know because I’m the selfish one… I feel bad, I’ll be honest. I just didn’t want my technique to go yet. I wanted to be remembered by something… And then you just appeared, wanting me to teach you…”  
“What?! B—but that was months before you quit! Don’t tell me you planned to quit before you even took me as your student! Why are you like this?! You could’ve told me! I wouldn’t have bothered you for so long only for you to suddenly leave!”  
“…”  
“Kai! Talk to me! Tell me you didn’t plan that from the beginning!”  
“…Well… Huh?”  
I was saved in that moment, from being backed into a corner. One of the workers came to our room. Honestly, I don’t even want to imagine what I’d have said. All I can really say is that neither one of us would’ve enjoyed that conversation.  
“Mister Adest, Miss Lité? You’re on in a bit. Can I ask you to come with me?”  
“Of course. Sorry for causing an inconvenience, we’ll be right there. Well, Mina, you’ll have to ask Hato after this, I suppose. Now, let’s go. It isn’t good to let your audience wait for you.”  
“Kai, no! I want you to answer me!”  
“…Maybe later. For now, let’s get this over with…”  
“I know I owe you at least that much after putting you through all of what I’ve done… Leaving you… No, not just you, everyone without any reason. I’m sorry, Mina. But I can’t tell you… I just can’t… I’m a horrible teacher, aren’t I? Of course I am… I was never cut out for this; I was always just a fool… I should at least do my best, right? Even if it’s the last time, I need to… I need to leave something behind for you, right?”  
“And those were Altére and Elisé! An absolutely stunning performance! As for our next group, apparently a living legend long thought dead returns to the stage! Please welcome Mister Kai Adest himself, accompanied by his single student, Mina Lité!”  
“What a boring entrance to give… The announcers really didn’t make any progress in that time I was gone, did they?”  
Those thoughts still remain unchanged by the by. Commentators and Announcers really need some experience in what they’re talking about.  
“Kai! I—!”  
“Mina, we’ll talk later. For now, focus on the show. Don’t let anyone or anything distract you, alright? Today’s the only chance you’ll get to be on stage with me.”  
“But—!”  
“No buts. Focus.”  
“…Alright! Jeez! Let’s do this, then!”  
I really did hope that I convinced her to give it her all.  
Most likely not, I was never a good motivator. I still am not.  
“I forgot the feeling of being on-stage… I can’t say I missed it… All eyes are on us… I can only hope I don’t mess everything up… How did we start again? This is why I normally prepare for longer than this! It always happens if I don’t!”  
“You may begin whenever! All eyes are set on seeing your performance here, tonight!”  
Already?! I’m not… I can’t… I… What am I going to do?! Can’t you, for once, just talk your ass off like you usually do?!  
“Kai! Calm down! Just do what you always do! You can do this! We can do this!”  
“Yeah… Yeah, you’re right.”  
I really needed those words, I won’t lie. If only it hadn’t been for that weird plan of hers… Maybe everything would’ve went differently…  
“Just focus… Breathe… Slowly… Wait, what?! This… this isn’t the music that’s supposed to play! None of this would match with what we thought of! I’m not ready to improvise! I can’t! I don’t know how to! What are we gonna do?!”  
“You recognize it, right? This music? It’s the one that was played 4 years ago… when you disappeared…”  
“W- what?”  
She’s right… She’s right! It is! But… this is supposed to be performed solo… you can’t just improvise a duo performance on the spot… That’s impossible!  
“Just perform it. Lead the way, Kai. I’ll keep up, I swear! I’ve been learning for this! I just hope I didn’t misremember anything…”  
“What are you doing, you idiot?! Why would you do this?! Why didn’t you just stick to the original idea?! Argh!”  
“Kai, just this once, okay? Trust me. I prepared for this. I’ll never ask anything of you again afterwards, I promise! So please, only this once…”  
“… I’ll do it… I can’t promise I’ll be good, though. It’s been a while, after all… But I’ll try.”  
“The crowd’s already all impatient… They’re murmuring… I can’t make them wait too long… Are you really ready, Mina? Am I ready?  
She’s nodding, so of course she is… I can only try, I suppose…  
Breathe… Just have faith… You’ve done this before, just do it again…”  
“Any day now! We’re all on the ropes just waiting for this long-awaited performance!”  
See, this is where it all went south. Well, not in a bad way. Just, not how it was planned. Remember what I talked about earlier? About how I didn’t want to lose? I really didn’t. Like I said, nobody does. It just feels awful. But then, what about that promise I made myself? That that’d be my last time? Yeah, I think you can tell where I’m going with this. Everything I told myself just conflicted with my desire to perform. I didn’t know what to do. Should I actually give it a proper attempt? Do I just make a lazy shot and let Mina handle everything? I couldn’t do that; it’d reflect poorly on her. But what if we did win? I couldn’t just quit after. If I did, she would get disqualified for a lack of a partner. But then I’d have to break my promises. All of that and more went through my head all at once. I couldn’t handle it. I wanted to make a serious attempt, but it just failed horribly. Remember what happened to you earlier? That tumble? That happened to me on stage. I couldn’t allow myself to let that happen. I had to string it into the performance, somehow. And I just immediately brought Mina out of rhythm by doing that. She wasn’t prepared for me to improvise. And neither was I. Sword dancing can be dangerous. I learned that one the hard way that night. I came out of that with cuts all over. I could see how she was feeling my pain while we danced. Nobody else seemed to notice, at least not while we performed. That performance felt so dragged out to me. We may not even have spent 5 minutes, but it most certainly felt like 30. That announcer didn’t make me feel any better, really.  
“Ladies and Gentlemen give it up for Kai Adest! Truly a performance worthy of one called a living legend! Next up, we have the wonderful duo of Mister Lloyd Alexander and Maximillian Demond!”  
I couldn’t stand staying on that stage for longer than I needed to. I couldn’t really stand in general after that. I left before anything even got announced past the next performers. Just slowly tumbled my way off the stage. I felt like I lost to, yet also won against myself. It was just suffocating. So, the second I got back to our room, I just dropped to the floor. This is the only part I don’t remember all that well… Really, all that I remember was that the door opened again while I was down, then I passed out for the better part of the next day. I just woke up, still in that room, Hato sat next to me, just eating nonchalantly. Didn’t even notice I was getting up. Oh, you don’t even know who Hato is… Right, let me explain. Hato was my mentor when I started out in the entertainment stuff. He’s a great man. If you get the chance to meet him, I’m sure he’d be able to tell you some great stories, too. Well, now he’s Mina’s mentor instead of me, and let me tell you, he’s doing a much better job than I ever would. But let’s continue now. Wouldn’t wanna eat up too much of your time after all.  
“…Hato? What are you doing here?”  
“Kai? Are you finally awake? You slept in. It’s almost sundown. Come on, get up. You’ve caused enough of an inconvenience to the people here already.”  
You know; that man’s voice is one that you can distinguish so damn easily, and it’s way too good to not use in a good way. But he doesn’t. That’s always been annoying.  
“W-what? Wait, what?! SUNDOWN?! Hato! Why didn’t you wake me up?!”  
“Believe me, I tried. You were just out cold. Now get up.”  
“I was out cold? Wait, why? What happened?”  
“Why’re you asking me? You didn’t even tell me you were taking part in this whole competition. Mina had to tell me you were here. Oh, and also, you still owe me an explanation. You know, explaining why the fuck you just quit for no reason. Just abandoned Mina and went wherever? That thing?”  
“Ah… right… I never told you why I quit, just said that I would. You and Mina are really similar, you know? Both of you have been trying to pin me down these past years just to get an explanation for this. I don’t know why you don’t just give up.”  
It’s rare to see Hato mad, but when he’s mad, oh boy, is he mad. And he was definitely mad at me. You know how I knew? He didn’t use swears. He never does when he gets mad. It’s like a preemptive warning.  
“Kai. Listen to me. Right now. If you don’t tell me why you quit, I will ruin your reputation. You and I both know I can. And I know you don’t want that either, no matter what you say.”  
“Hato, no. You listen to me. There’s a reason I quit. And that reason’s mine alone to know. Neither you nor Mina need to bother knowing it. Nobody does, for that matter. My regret’s mine to carry, and mine alone.”  
“Ha! You saying you regret something is something I’d expect from a fairytale, not reality. Kai, I know you better than that. You’re not the type to regret, no matter what you did.”  
He’s right, in most cases. I don’t regret a lot of things. But that one thing, I regretted deeply. I’d go as far as to say I resent myself.  
“I know it sounds stupid, and I know you know me well enough. But I’m also a human, not some out of this world being with no emotions or anything. I regret things. Not often, but I do. So if you’d just stop being nosy and let me do my thing instead of chasing after me, it’d be better. For you and Mina. I don’t ask you for a lot of things. At least, I don’t think I do. But the one thing I asked you was to look after Mina and be her guide. I didn’t ask you to go after me for two damn years. Look, I promise you this. One day, I’ll come back to all this entertainment stuff. I already broke my promise to myself anyway, so I might as well make a new one. So just do this for me. Alright?”  
“…You know how much I hate it when you’re right? You’re not supposed to be smart. Yeah, you never did ask anything from me beyond the stuff I signed up to do on my own volition. And yeah, you didn’t ask me to look for you for a whole two years. But do you want to know why I did anyway? Because I can’t let you just quit. Not without knowing why. And you asked me to look after Mina? How do you expect me to do that when Mina couldn’t even sleep properly for a whole three months after you were gone?! Do you know how much you mean to that girl? Huh? Do you? No, of course you don’t. You’re a fool if you think I can look after someone for you when they need you, not me. You could ask me to travel the entire world three times over and it’d be more reasonable. That girl needs someone to look up to. Not someone to watch and prepare her for the entertainment world. You’re an idiot if you think I can do something for you when the person it affects doesn’t want it to happen. Either you tell me what made you quit or I’ll personally see to it you won’t get anywhere to get food from, sleep at or anything else. I mean it. I know you think I’m some kind of asshole, threatening you like this, but this isn’t even for my own satisfaction. You know that as well as I do.”  
His lecture was justified. I didn’t have a response, either. What was I gonna say? “No, I’d rather starve out in the streets?” There was no clever punchline or anything. Just… the offering to tell a story. A rather short one, but a story, nonetheless.  
“…I know you’re right… I know it, but I don’t want you to be... Listen. Hato. I want to make just this one, single, promise to you. Once I’ve figured out how to deal with everything, I’ll tell you the whole thing. Everything that happened that made me quit. But right now? Right now, I can’t. I know that’s disappointing and all. But I just can’t bring myself to do it. I can give you a little clue and, as much as I don’t want you to, I can’t stop you from looking into it much more. But if you at all value my words, I just hope that you won’t poke your head into it. That’s the deal I can make with you.”  
“I so despise you right about now. You know I’d dive headfirst into whatever you’d give me. Even if it’s just for Mina. The girl has the right to know after your selfish garbage. No. You won’t tell me anything. You’ll go tell Mina. If she wants to know more, you’ll tell her more. I really don’t care if you’re prepared or not, but you will. And believe me, if she asks for my help to find out what it is you say you so deeply regret, I will help her. So go. Now. You should know where she is. Wait, actually… Before you go, I still want you to promise that whatever it is that made you quit, you’ll tell me once you’ve “figured everything out,” alright?”  
“Of course… Now, I suppose I should get going sooner or later… I don’t want to keep Mina waiting all that long. So, for now, until we next meet.”  
“Mhmm… I don’t know when “next we meet” will be, but until then, I suppose. And don’t even think of breaking your promise.”  
“I really hope that I won’t… I genuinely do… But I don’t think I can keep up that promise… But then, I can’t tell you that, can I, Hato?  
…Yeah. I’d never. You know me better than that.”  
Looking back on it, I’m fairly certain he knew I was lying. Hato is only physically human, everything else about him is outlandish.  
But I really wasn’t expecting to meet Hato that day, neither did I ever think we’d end up having a conversation like that. I never expected to have a conversation like that with anyone, really.  
“I should know where to find her…? There’s a lot of places I could think of… No, actually… There’s really only one place I can imagine in a situation like this one… The spot where she first thought to approach me.”  
You know, that’s actually why I came here. This place right here, this theater, is where we first spoke. The place where she first asked to be my apprentice.  
It’s nice to reminisce about every now and again, but now isn’t the time.  
Well, after I finally convinced myself there’d be nowhere else she could be, I came here and, lo and behold, there she was. Sat on the cold floor, sobbing quietly. It hurt me to see her that way. I knew I couldn’t really make anything up to her. I lied to her, used her to an extent, and put her through all that I did. I never made it easy on her to work with me. She was patient. Deserved much more than I gave. That shame? That, I cannot ever get rid of. I knew I fucked up, just I didn’t realize how much I’d really fucked up, and I was a fool for that. I still can’t imagine how much of an impact I must’ve made on her when I just up and left. Twice, no less.  
I don’t think I was prepared to talk to her at that point in time, but what was I to do? And anyway, I don’t think I’d ever have been ready if I didn’t do it then.


End file.
